


I was set alight

by Marishna



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alpha Laura, Derek Feels, Derek-centric, F/M, Gen, New York City, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Rebuilding, The Hale Pack - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 12:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/735830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marishna/pseuds/Marishna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garbage - #1 Crush</p><p>I will burn for you<br/>Feel pain for you<br/>I will twist the knife and bleed my aching heart<br/>And tear it apart<br/>…<br/>Violate all The love that I'm missing<br/>Throw away all the pain that I'm living<br/>You will believe in me<br/>And I can never be ignored</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Something pure and true

**Author's Note:**

> A multi-part fanfictionmix, written for the last challenge at beacon_hills and centered on Derek Hale. Only the first chapter is Derek/Kate centric.

It was too easy.

The thing that Kate liked best about being a hunter was the _chase_. Running so far and fast after something that was able to tear her heart out with a single plunge of its hand into her chest.

But it was scared of her.

For the Hales she took a different tack.

They were an old family, ingrained into the culture of Beacon Hills now. They’d been around and on that land for generations. They’d assimilated and had tricked the town into thinking they were normal, every day people. People period.

The knowledge of their true identities roiled in Kate’s gut and ate at her thoughts in her every waking moment. So what if they were peaceful- _for now_? Just because there hadn’t been a suspicious “animal attack” in decades didn’t mean there wouldn’t be. Didn’t mean the Hales wouldn’t invite trouble on this sleepy town.

Kate wouldn’t let them.

The solution came quite simply to her while standing in the cereal aisle at the grocery store.

The sounds of chattering children bickering back and forth and a squeaky cart got louder as a small group picked their way through the selections. Before she even looked up Kate could feel a prickle at the back of her neck that it was them. The Hales.

She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge them, didn’t give herself away.

“No Sarah, Mom said nothing sugary. Put that back,” one of them, an older female, spoke up. “Derek, grab some Cheerios or something, would you? Kyle! No Fruit Loops!”

Kate stayed where she was and didn’t look up until a lanky teen boy edged closer to her with a mumbled, “excuse me”.

Kate watched him grab a couple boxes of Cheerios-the plain kind, nothing sugary-and then shifted just enough to draw his eye.

Derek looked up at her and she smiled, bright and wide. He flushed instantly and almost dropped one of the boxes. He didn’t know how to handle his body yet, hadn’t grown into parts of himself. He was long legs and white teeth and awkwardness.

“Careful,” Kate murmured, knowing he could hear her. He turned even more red, if possible, and shuffled backwards with the boxes of cereal clutched to his chest.

Kate grabbed a box of Cheerios, too, and sauntered away, putting a little more swing in her step because she could feel his eyes on her. 

She hated Cheerios.

********

“Miss. Argent,” Derek whispered against Kate’s mouth reverently. They were in the backseat of her car, a rented compact that she hated, but it fit with the substitute school teacher look. Making out in the back seat of it in the middle of the woods with a gawky sophomore werewolf wasn’t her idea of a good time.

“Call me Kate,” she replied, running a hand up Derek’s chest, settling over his heart that was pounding impossibly fast under his clothes. 

“ _Kate_ ,” Derek murmured. He surged forward to catch her lips with his in a sloppy kiss. He wasn’t hopeless but she was going to have to work with him, for sure.

Mold him. Educate him. Train him.

“Easy,” Kate said softly, pulling back a bit. She put her fingers against his lips gently. “I’ll show you.”

********

“Kate!”

“Mr. Hale, please call me Miss. Argent,” Kate admonished when Derek rushed into her classroom as the last students from her final class trickled out. She closed the door behind them before turning to Derek. “You know you can’t do that.”

“I know, I just--”

“And coming in here when we don’t have a class together is risky, Derek.” Kate walked slowly to her desk where Derek was standing, fiddling awkwardly with his backpack straps.

“But--”

Kate dropped her voice to just above a whisper and leaned in close to him, letting her breath ghost over his neck. “No buts, Derek. You don’t want to ruin this, do you?”

“No. I just had to see you.”

“You can see me tonight in the woods.”  
“That’s the thing. I have a ... family thing,” Derek hesitated. Kate knew exactly what he had. It wasn’t the full moon but it was close, so close. 

Too close.

But no one could ever accuse Kate of lacking balls.

She stroked one hand down Derek’s cheek while the other settled against his thigh, caressing just enough for him to feel. 

“Please?” she breathed.

Derek swallowed hard, then nodded jerkily and escaped the room before his erection became too noticeable.

“I can’t wait,” Kate murmured after him with a smirk.

********  
Kate liked to watch. 

Normally she was close enough to the action that she got to see the kill up close and personal, if she wasn’t actively involved.

This one had extra significance for her. 

So many firsts involved. First pack this big. First time she’d ever used fire. First time taking the long way around to get it done. First time for... well, it was a lot of firsts for Derek. 

First time she ever left one behind.

From her vantage point in the woods Kate could see the firefighters trying to get the blaze under control but she knew it was a futile effort. It had burned for at least an hour inside before anyone noticed it to call the fire department.

The screams from the ones in the basement lasted a lot longer than she expected.

She hadn’t expected Derek to stay late for lacrosse tryouts or for Laura to stay behind to watch him and then drive him home. He told Kate he wasn’t going to tryout.

Probably wanted to impress her. 

So they weren’t in the house, which presented a bit of a problem for Kate since she wanted to be gone by the time the sun rose in the morning. 

But when the car pulled up and Derek and Laura tumbled out, screaming and, well, _howling_ with grief Kate reconsidered.

Derek sank the ground in disbelief, watching his whole life burn, and it was like watching something’s batteries die. He powered down, became despondent and shuttered.

Laura was more vocal and forceful but her pain was evident as well. She had to be restrained by a couple of the deputies from running into the house.  
 Derek, though. Derek just sat there. 

It was enough. Kate’s work here was done. 

She blew a kiss to Derek and disappeared into the woods.


	2. The innocence of what you are is what I want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iron & Wine - Cinders & Smoke
> 
> Cinder and smoke  
> The snake in the basement  
> Found the juniper shade  
> The farmhouse is burning down

It’s hard to figure out what was worse. 

The smell of the fire clinging to their clothes, the car, their few worldly possessions for months.

The nightmares that plagued them both as they made their way as far away from the physical reminders as possible. Out of the town, the state, the area, damn-near out of the country cause New York is like its own world.

The haunted looks Laura gives him every morning when she wakes up, as if today is the day everything is okay. That none of it really happened and they’ve woken up at home with mom making breakfast and dad wrangling their younger siblings into submission.

That Laura didn’t know why it happened. 

That had to be it, right? That had to be the worst?

Or was it that every morning Derek could hear her crying in the shower in whatever depressing motel they passed through and every night she woke up from a dead sleep with one of their dead family members’ names on her lips.

That she had to deal with the insurance company and the process to get the payout of what amounted to blood money. That as soon as arson was mentioned Laura’s eyes flashed red for the first time and, oh yeah, there was the reminder that she was the alpha now.

The role she never really expected to have because they both expected their parents to live forever and if Laura _did_ eventually become alpha it would be because their parents passed away at incredibly old ages and Laura herself wouldn’t be long for the world by that point, either, so the role would probably have gone to someone younger. That was both of their wishes, anyway. 

Maybe the very worst was when Derek had his own nightmares about what happened he would wake up shaking in a cold sweat. And Laura would be right there next to him. She’d hold him tight and stroke his hair away from his forehead and whisper, “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. You’re okay, Derek. You’re okay.”


	3. With ash in your mouth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foster the People - Miss You
> 
> I know who I had been before I slipped  
> Oh, I want to change it  
> I will live a life that makes you smile  
> When I'm done here and long gone  
> Feverish speaking, just wanna see your face

Laura made Derek get his high school diploma. She didn’t press him to go back to school but she made him get his GED and then pushed him to go to college. 

“At least take a couple classes, see what you might like. Please, Derek?” she’d beg. 

So he did, just to get out of the apartment. Laura worked, even though she didn’t have to. Neither of them had to do anything they didn’t want to ever again.

The insurance money came through and sat heavily in their bank account. They set up an account for Peter’s long-term care costs to come out of and another for their rent and utilities in the cramped one-bedroom apartment they had in New York.

Derek slept on the couch despite Laura’s insistence that they could look for something bigger, nicer, something-er. Derek shook his head and refused to talk about it.

He was trying, he was. He passed his GED easily, enrolled in some classes, looked around for a part time job, did the grocery shopping, made dinner when Laura worked late. He cleaned the apartment and held the door open when Mrs. Langdon downstairs was behind him because she was 80 million years old and she’d probably snap from the effort.

He ran with Laura in parks outside the city a couple times a month, when she made him. He dutifully obeyed her when she said something alpha-y.

And when Laura called him out on being what she called “drone!Derek” he merely nodded and said he’d try better.

“No, Derek. Don’t _try_. _Be_. Please? For me? I miss you.”

Derek wasn’t sure what to say to that.


	4. You haven't met me, I'm the only son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mumford & Sons - Dust Bowl Dance
> 
> Seal my heart and break my pride  
> I've nowhere to stand and now nowhere to hide  
> Align my heart, my body, my mind  
> To face what I've done and do my time

“The boy, he is unpredictable.”

“Derek can be a bit hot-tempered, yes, but he’s very loyal. He is a dedicated beta.”

“Given your circumstances you can understand why I stand on the position that that remains to be seen.”

“Of course.”

“Talk to your brother and let me know what you would like your next step to be.”

“Thank you.”

*********

“You did _what_?” Derek bellowed.

“Derek, we’re alone here,” Laura said, keeping her voice even. 

“I’m well aware of that, Laura,” Derek replied stonily. “But that doesn’t mean we have to join whatever pack is in the area.”

“It kind of does, Derek. We’re on someone else’s turf here. It’s only been by their good graces that we weren’t run out of here months ago.”

“Have you been planning this for months, then?” Derek asked.

“Thinking about it,” Laura said truthfully. “I don’t... I don’t really know what I’m doing here, Derek. And we’re so...”

“Small?”

“Broken.”

“No we’re not,” Derek said fiercely. “We are _Hales_.”

“In Beacon Hills we were Hales,” Laura corrected. “Here we’re two members of a pack that no longer exists.”

“So let’s make it exist,” Derek begged. “We can recruit new members or find another pack that needs a leader--”

“Like us?”

“Shut up, Laura. We’re _not_ doing this. I won’t let you. I’ll go Omega before I follow another alpha,” he threatened. Laura’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

“Derek, that’s--”

“Crazy? I know. Believe me, I know. I don’t want to do it anymore than you want me to but I don’t care. We are _not_ joining another pack. We’re the last two Hales. I don’t care if we die that way, that’s who we are. That’s who I have to be, Laura.”

Laura reached up slowly and put her hands on Derek’s shoulders, feeling his whole body shuddering under her touch. She drew him into her embrace carefully, let her warmth and power wash over him even though he dwarfed her in size. He gradually calmed but he kept his arms wrapped around her, not letting her go.

“Okay, Derek. Okay.”


	5. We're not the same, dear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Death Cab for Cutie - The Ice is Getting Thinner
> 
> We're not the same, dear, as we used to be.  
> The seasons have changed and so have we.  
> There was little we could say, and even less we could do  
> To stop the ice from getting thinner under me and you.

The Hale pack was allowed to stay in New York thanks to some good will and promises to keep a low profile. The Hale pack had never been one that followed the letter of were laws so Laura would have been flying blind if any official ceremony or request had to be made.

So for the time they were okay.

Kind of.

As a pack they were good. Strong, and unified.

As people they were shattered.

As family they were... Laura wasn’t even sure what to say about that.

They passed each other a few times a week, in the hallways or outside the bathroom. They barely talked beyond plans for runs or preparations for the full moon. 

They were drifting and Laura had no damn clue how to pull them back together. How to make things better between them. Neither of them were the same people that left Beacon Hills. At least there Laura could usually annoy Derek into telling her what was bothering him.

Here he’d growl at her and shut her down as soon as she got that “tone” in her voice. She couldn’t make herself alpha the situation. That was dirty and she didn’t want to ruin what tenuous connection she still had with Derek that way.

It had been years. Years that passed with barely a nod to their losses because it was too hard, too much. Laura sent a Christmas and birthday card to the facility Peter was in every year and scrawled Derek’s name on it, too, knowing that Peter wouldn’t know the difference. They didn’t have anything from their home, no photos or trinkets or mementos of better times. Any time Laura brought up the possibility of making the apartment more homey or trying something she remembered from Beacon Hills Derek shut it down right away.

Laura wasn’t even sure that if she met her brother as a person on the street that she would like him at all. 

She loved him, for sure. She’d lay down her life for him and protect him no matter what.

But she didn’t know if they were friends anymore.


	6. So leave yourself intact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coheed & Cambria - Wake Up
> 
> I'm going to ride this plane out of your life again.  
> I wish that I could stay but you argue.  
> More than this I wish you could've seen my face  
> In backseat staring out the window.

Dying sucked.

Besides the whole getting chewed into two parts thing, it sucked more.

For instance, Laura couldn’t tell Derek that he was _ruining her car_.

_”Why are you driving it in standard? Just drive it in automatic, you dickhead!”_ Laura screeched over the sound of grinding gears, not that Derek could hear her. She resisted the urge to reach over and slap him upside the head but she wouldn’t get the satisfaction of feeling her hand actually connect so she resisted.

Turns out that Laura didn’t cross over. Or “move on” or go into the light or whatever other cliched expression for death someone could think of. Peter killed her, things went dark for her for a while and then she just sorta started ... floating around.

She wasn’t sure what she missed while she was AWOL but Derek was neck deep in shit and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do.

Peter was dead, that much was clear. If Laura couldn’t feel the power rolling off her brother she’d definitely see he was the alpha by his eyes.

And his penchant for going around proclaiming himself so.

Hadn’t he learned _anything_ from their parents and her?

And so she waited, and watched. Derek’s makeshift pack of misfit toys was shaping up ... slowly. In true Derek fashion he couldn’t just come right out and _say_ what he wanted or how he was feeling, he had to grunt, growl or beat it out of himself. But while his pack was gradually learning, so was he. Granted, it was the kind of gradual you see in a glacier but the intention was there.

He struggled every day. It hurt Laura’s non-existent heart to see it and she would reach out without thinking to run a hand over his face. Derek couldn’t feel it but sometimes he’d jerk around or shiver.

At night when he finally settled down and tried to relax Laura would sit beside him and whisper to him, hoping that somehow something would sink in.

_”Just be there for Scott. He’ll come around.”_

_”Erica and Boyd are strong but they’re going to need a strong alpha when they come back. **Be** strong, Derek._

_”Jesus Christ, would it kill you to live somewhere above ground with running water? I don’t even have an olfactory system any more and I think **I** can smell this place!_

When Derek finally drifted off into a fitful sleep Laura would hover her hand over his hair and mime stroking it, like she saw her mother do many times when they were still children. Derek never let Laura do it but he couldn’t very well stop her now, could he?

She would stay, and wait, until he didn’t need her anymore.


	7. But I feel warmth on my skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Secret Sisters - Tomorrow Will be Kinder
> 
> Often I wonder why I try  
> Hoping for an end  
> Sorrow weighs my shoulders down  
> And trouble haunts my mind  
> But I know the present will not last  
> And tomorrow will be kinder

A lesser person would probably have caved by now; thrown in the towel and given up the fight.

Good thing Derek’s a werewolf and not just a person.

Things weren’t the best they could be, not by a long shot. Beacon Hills still attracted the weirdest creatures and supernatural bad guys that Derek was sure he was on a SyFy version of _Punk’d_.

Erica was gone. 

Boyd almost didn’t come home.

Jackson was all but missing.

Isaac considered joining up with Scott as his alpha.

The Sheriff found out about werewolves, kanimas, his son’s involvement--the whole nine yards--and almost put a bullet in Derek’s brain. Not a wolfsbane one, thankfully, but Derek doubted he’d be able to recover from a regular lead one straight through his forehead.

The Alpha pack came and went, taking with them no lives but lots of blood and crushed spirits.

It took Derek a long time to realize that he couldn’t live in the past. He wouldn’t talk about what happened all those years ago, in the very house the pack convinced him to start rebuilding, but he knew some people figured it out. 

Stiles, for one, who gingerly pointed out that rebuilding might not be the best idea. Starting anew could signal a corner turned in more ways than one. 

“It’s just ... do you want to build a new house where the old one had so many good _and_ bad memories attached to it?”

He was a pain in the ass but when Derek actually listened to him sometimes he had good ideas.

The house being bulldozed was hard enough but the worst was seeing the foundation and basement coming out. Where his family burned to death, trapped and screaming. Where his childhood, life, soul died. 

Derek hid out for a few days in his apartment after that, ignoring calls and knocks on his bedroom door from Isaac. When he returned to the property again the process to get a new house started had already begun, with Boyd directing in Derek’s place.

Watching the ground being redug, the new foundation forms going in was indescribable. 

Truth be told, he wasn’t sure he even knew what to call what he was feeling because if he’d ever felt it before he didn’t remember.

“It’s called optimism,” Stiles called from his place beside Boyd, wearing a _hardhat_ , of all things. 

“You look stupid,” Derek replied but he was grinning.

“That’s not very positive,” Stiles chided.

“I’m _positive_ you look stupid.”

“There ya go!”

Here you go, indeed, Derek Hale.


	8. My own secret ceremonials

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Florence & the Machine - Only If for a Night
> 
> And I heard your voice  
> As clear as day  
> And you told me I should concentrate  
> It was all so strange  
> And so surreal  
> That a ghost should be so practical  
> Only if for a night

Finally.

It took two years but the house was done where Derek wanted it.

The eating area was noisy and crowded, even though it was huge. Derek had a “great room” now, instead of a separate living and dining rooms and a kitchen. The long table, made out of reclaimed wood, was packed with enough food to feed half of Beacon Hills--or eight werewolves and seven humans.

The pack had evolved, incredibly so in Derek’s eyes. All for the better. A couple new ‘wolves had found their way to the pack and earned their places within. The sheriff reluctantly joined their world, with a little prodding from Melissa, and now the pack was helping them plan their wedding, set for the summer.

Danny found his way to the pack, as well, after trying to work out where Jackson went and what made him go. Allison and Scott were still on-and-off again but more on than off these days. 

Lydia proved herself more than a worthy addition to the pack, especially once she took her revenge on Peter for everything he put her through. Derek wasn’t one-hundred percent sure on the details but it shut Peter up for a few days and left him visibly unscathed so he didn’t really care.

Stiles grew into himself and carved out his own place within the pack. He decided to study folklore and mythology at Berkeley while taking on some side-studies through Deaton. Stiles proved (more to himself than the rest of the pack) incredibly useful, albeit incredibly tiresome, once he successfully warded Derek out of his bedroom for a couple days without knowing how to remove them properly. 

The kitchen was loud and warm and filled to the brim with people around him. Derek laughed at Lydia slapping Scott’s hand from reaching for the last bun, and caught Peter trying to run his finger along the edge of the frosted cake Allison made. There were dirty dishes everywhere and splatters of food on the floor, and the remains of at least one of the new glass tumblers in the garbage from where Scott dropped one earlier in the evening.

It was damn-near perfect.

Derek stood up from the table, feeling full and content, and gestured towards the door. The rest of the ‘wolves stood up, too, to join him for a run. The humans started to push back from the table to gather their things and start cleaning but Derek held up a hand.

“Come on. Let’s all run.”

“Huh?” Scott said, confused.

“As a celebration for the house finally being done and this housewarming it would be nice for the whole pack to be together tonight. Just for a little while.”

Allison smiled softly and leaned into Scott and Stiles broke into a grin while his dad and Melissa exchanged “why the hell not?” looks.

Everyone walked out into the woods together, leaving the clean up for later. They followed the ‘wolves to where they normally shed their clothes and shifted and watched without too much embarrassment at the nudity.

Once Derek shifted his eyes turned red and he reared back to howl, letting his pride through in the notes, relished in the echo of the return howls from his pack.

They started a slow run and the humans actually ran with them. Derek could hear their less sure footfalls but they kept up and it was amazing.

Finally Derek cut loose and sped a head of everyone, knowing they were safe. 

As he ran Derek felt that if he looked over he would see Laura running beside him, grinning as she matched his pace and urged him faster. 

He ran with the feeling of completion for the first time in forever, and hoped it would stay a while.


End file.
